# Progress Report...

New grammar practice kit of SRA, IBM's educational publishing subsidiary, is one of nine basic skills kits developed by SRA Canada Ltd. and used by elementary schools in the U.S. and more than 45 countries abroad.

## Satellite System Progress

Satellite Business Systems, the partnership formed by subsidiaries of The Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, COMSAT General Corporation, and IBM, has begun a pilot test within IBM of the kind of digital, integrated communications system that SBS plans to offer commercially.

The Federal Communications Commission and SBS have petitioned for a rehearing of a U.S. Court of Appeals 1978 ruling that overturned the FCC's earlier approval for the SBS system. The court did not question the system's desirability but said the FCC should have held hearings to consider more fully possible antitrust questions regarding IBM and COMSAT General as partners in the same venture, before granting SBS a license. Pending a court ruling on the petition, SBS is continuing to prepare for a start of commercial operations in 1981.

## Expansion to Meet Demand

To keep pace with growing demand, IBM began construction of manufacturing and product development facilities totaling 3.2 million square feet in 1978. Included were plant/laboratory complexes in Charlotte, N.C., and Tucson, Ariz., a laboratory addition in Austin, Tex., and automated product distribution centers in Austin and in Greenscastle, Ind. Already under construction or completed in 1978 were manufacturing plants in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Hannover, Germany; and Havant, England; as well as a development laboratory addition in Rochester, Minn., and a distribution center in Raleigh, N.C.

Major IBM construction projects worldwide are listed on page 20.

IBM has announced its intention to build a manufacturing plant for data processing products at Santa Palomba, south of Rome, Italy.

## Conserving More Energy

IBM continued to improve its energy efficiency in 1978, implementing conservation projects that resulted in a 6.8% saving per square foot at major U.S. locations, compared with 1977. This exceeded IBM's 1978 goal of a 5% saving and brought IBM's total U.S. reduction from the 1973 pre-conservation level to 42%.

In the past five years, IBM has saved enough electricity in the U.S. to serve 300,000 homes for a year and enough oil to meet the needs of 115,000 homes in northern states.

In World Trade countries, where conservation has traditionally been practiced, the energy saved at major IBM locations from 1973 through 1978 totaled approximately 35%.

Significant future savings are expected from conservation features of new IBM buildings. For example, the New York City office building now under construction (photo on page 35) will have computer control of the heating, air conditioning, and lighting systems. The computer will decide when to use heat reclaimed from machines, lights and people, utility steam; free cooling from the outdoors; and mechanical refrigeration. The computer will automatically select the best combination from more than 35 operating conditions.